


Night Drive

by tenderhearted



Category: Original Work
Genre: Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-22 13:26:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6081078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tenderhearted/pseuds/tenderhearted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The stars were nice that night. Ray has a strange night under the stars.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Night Drive

The night sky was pitch black in the rural country. Without the moon, the only source of light were the dots of stars that made Ray dizzy when he focused on them. He could stand out in the parking lot of the community center where the teenagers and young adults took residence to play decrepit board games. He could stand there in front if the building on the crumbling asphalt and let his consciousness drift up to meet the stars. but then his friend Mona would bump his shoulder and drag him back to reality. 

“C’mon,” she said, “We need to drop off the kids before it gets late.” 

It was already late, but the drive to bring the younger teens back home to their families was long and excuses were accepted as long as the kids were safe. Climbing in the passenger seat and opening a map on his phone, Ray took down 3 addresses of the kids sitting in the back seat. The worn and patched 4-door had already looked shabby when Ray and Mona had bought it from the used car lot, but now it drew curious stares that wondered how this fossil kept running.

The first two houses weren't far from the center. The parents and guardians accept their teens back home with tired smiles and tired waves. The third home was far. The teenager, a kid named Jamie, stared out the window at the stars. Ray did the same. He let the star’s infinity seep into his mind. Infinite time, space, and ideas that make up the universe filled his head. The everything. Jamie was thinking about everything too. 

Mona pulls the car into the large front yard in front of a small yellow house. Orange porch lights were glowing on the dirt path worn in front of the door. Jamie opened the car door and said, “Can you come with me?” Without question Ray nodded and exited the car into the humid summer night.

Ray took his time walking up the dirt path to the door, expecting the parents to open the door and wave so he could go back to the car. But Jamie stood on the porch, watching him expectantly. He waited for Ray to reach the porch before knocking on the door. Ray felt uneasy as he stepped onto the wood panels of the porch, like they could suddenly break beneath his footsteps. He shook off the unease and concluded the house must be old, most of the houses this far into the country were. But when the door opened, he lost all train of thought and his attention was drawn to the figure in the door frame. 

It looked like a human being, Ray thought so anyway, until he noticed the arms. There were too many to count. Maybe sixteen or seventeen limbs, if he included what he thought were its legs. But were they legs? It had some kind of  _ presence,  _ like it didn’t need legs to stand, like it didn’t need eyes to see him. But it did have eyes, about eight if he could see its face clearly, but he couldn’t.  _ Something,  _ maybe that presence, was keeping him from looking at its face. 

Ray turned to Jamie with a question on his mouth, but not sure of what words to say. Jamie looked at him with much too knowing eyes for fourteen-year-old. Jamie held a fist out to Ray, “See you next week, bro?”

“Yeah,” Ray gave him a weak fist bump, “See you then…”

Ray watched Jamie step into the house, sliding by the being that still watched in the doorway.  _ What is it? _ Ray wondered as he stared for a second time.  _ A ghost? An alien?  _ But it was after this thought that Ray noticed the most important features of the figure: wings, black as void and yet still glowing with the porch lights onto the dirt path. Ray wanted to touch them, to feel the feathers soft and smooth against his fingers. The feathers looked large, like the wings tucked behind the beings back, slightly ruffled in the summer night breeze. He decided he couldn’t touch them, it was too much for him to handle, but he couldn’t walk back to the car. 

He couldn’t move. His arms wouldn't move his legs wouldn't budge. His fingers felt numb and his feet were cold and stuck to the spot. He couldn’t move his neck, he was stuck staring at the being in front of him. Ray felt cold, and his legs felt numb. The loss of feeling spread to his arms and his torso. The being stood silent, and Ray felt like his lungs and heart were stopping too. “Go now,” said the said the being finally, “Or you will never leave.”

The being never said another word, and Ray was finally able to turn away. He walked down the dirt path to the car, his shadow cast in the glow of the being and the porch lights. He didn’t turn back to see the being move, and for the door to close. Mona was on her phone when Ray got into the car. She smiled as he opened the door, and she started the engine. Ray sat in thick silence with Mona, and stared at the stars on the way back home. He didn’t remember much of that night the morning after, most of the memory was fuzzy, but he was sure Jamie got home safe. He knew that’s what mattered.


End file.
